Hacking MySpace

Stephan Spencer (one time scientist, now marketing guru) is writing a series of articles about marketing on MySpace, and his latest post makes some interesting points, which I’d like to expand on.

Spencer interviews Michael Bolding at Pugster, online retailer of charms and jewelry. The business has a MySpace profile, which it is using to help generate traffic and sales. Bolding provided some advice on how to use MySpace as a marketing vehicle. His key points were:

• Focus on the right group for your product or market - don’t get overwhelmed by the numbers.
• When you first start you need to get as many friends as possible, and Bolding suggests targeting bands (who also want as many friends as possible)
• Use MySpace mail as a softsell tool to build relationships with people
• Be patient as it takes time to build credibility. Provide something interesting, such as blogs or music - “the only investment is your time”
• Keep it personal, and don’t go over the top with the selling
• Simple profiles work best
• Don’t let your site become a slow loader (ie too much junk so that it slows down)

What I think is interesting is that if you look at Bolding’s advice, it’s consistent with some broader, well-established themes that you learn in marketing school, and which I’ve talked about here and in my book Hacking Myspace( in the chapter that provides advice to bands on how to promote themselves).

First the importance of segmentation, ie targeting the “right group”. Whatever you sell, you cannot be all things to all people, and it’s vitally important to identify a target market, and than focus on reaching that market. Obviously, since Bolding is selling charms, MySpace is a great promotional platform for him, but even then, not everyone on MySpace wants to buy charms.

Second, adding value to the experience of visitors to your profile helps you engage potential customers, and helps to generate interest in whatever it is that you’re doing.

Third, be easy to deal with and make it clear what you’re about and what people can do to follow up. In my profile I provide a link to this web page, as well as a link to Amazon where people can buy my book. I actually had a conversation about this yesterday when I met someone at a cafe and it wasn’t clear whether there was table service or whether you had to order at the counter. My colleague said that he had on occasion walked away from an unfamiliar cafe because it “was just too hard”. Don’t let people leave from your profile because it’s not clear what to do.

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